News and Special Feelings!

This is the third installment of my European Tour Diary.

May 2, 2008

We woke up early, thinking we'd get a jump on the day. We had a long drive to Darmstadt ahead of us and were due to arrive in the afternoon so we'd be ready to play on a radio show that started at 6.

But this was not to be. The Parisian gods intervened in their tricky way and had our car towed during the night. The Dans had gone ahead to load our first batch of luggage (they were always doing that kind of wonderful stuff) and found that the large yellow X that Arnaud had assured us was nothing to worry about was, in fact, "une problemme".

The car was gone. Merde.


Luckily, Arnaud and the Dans were able to track it down to a tow yard that wasn't too far away. They went off to retrieve it. But what were Andrew, Julie and I to do with a free sunshiney morning in Paris? Off to Sacre Coeur!

We bought some pastries, took in the views and then shuffled into the cathedral with the other tourists.

We were just about to flip out from all the pushing and illegal-photo-taking when Julie found us a bench to flop on. The minute we sat down a whole superfluity of nuns marched in for a nice, old-fashioned chanting concert. We all felt that we'd landed in a pot of particularly tasty French jam.

This mood lasted for an hour or so. But just as our spirits lagged, here came the Dans, Arnaud and our beautiful car! We were 137 Euros poorer but wiser.

Dany put the pedal to the metal and we blasted out of Paris and off to Darmstadt!

It was a long drive. Almost 7 hours. The time pretty much flew by, though, so intent were we on our goal. If it had been any other show, we could have been late. But this was our one scheduled radio appearance.

Just as we rolled into town "We Are The Champions" came on the radio and we sang it triumphantly as we pulled up to the radio station only 20 minutes late. The DJ had been stalling, playing old recordings etc. Someone had to get up there so I leapt infront of the mic and started my set. I don't even remember how it went. I think it rocked. I remember drinking a giant beer.

Peter (our friend from Berlin) had set up the show and he was there to meet us. Here are the things Peter likes:
1) Bauhaus architecture
2) nude bathing
3) redistributing the means of production amongst the larger community

He is an excellent specimen of Germanitude and though he comes off like an especially vigalent Stassi agent, with a little teasing he will giggle like a schoolgirl. An excellent host, he had prepared a huge spread of bread, cheese and pickles with little American flags stuck in them (lord knows where he got those).

We were all a little loopy after the show and this led to doing both the chicken dance and the hokey pokey outside the station. One stranger told us that he thought our dance was very moving and that we'd made him feel like he might be happy again some day in the future. Now, THAT is a fan. A crazy, crazy fan.

Peter had arranged for us to spend the night at the Socialist Youth Center on the outskirts of town. It had the feel of a summercamp rec. building- a little musty and chilly but full of boardgames, flags and (after we arrived) beer. We sat up for a long time with Peter and his surly, socialist pals. They explained why they were in favor of the Iraq war and disapproved of the Dali Lama. Eventually, we passed out.

May 3, 2008

Early in the morning, these seemingly grumpy gusses woke us up by running around the cabin, hooting like ghosts and banging on the walls. We were very scared (though maybe in a different way than they intended.)

Everyone sat around for a lazy breakfast in the backyard.

Lis had come to meet us and she now was campaigning hard to be allowed to travel with us to Castrop for our next show. She cited her impressive smallness and her eagerness to not visit a palace with Peter, claiming that she didn't like palaces- only castles. We couldn't put her in the car but Julie and the Dans drove her to the train station to see if she could get there that way. Andrew, Peter and I tried to squeeze in a quick game of Enchanted Forrest.


The train mission was a failure and Lis had to resign herself to meeting us in Cologne. But we were off to parts unknown: The Wilds of Castrop!